Asklemmy

Physical keys that you had to type multiple times to get letters. I could write a whole text message with my hands in my pocket.

I kinda miss flip phones? These days phones are too big for my hands and pockets. I find myself buying cheaper phones just so it's a little smaller.

Not phones, but TVs. My first flatscreen tv(not a smart tv yet) had a picture in picture mode, so I could play games while my family watched TV. That was nice, but it seems to have just vanished as a feature in modern TVs.

A battery which lasts up to a week.

Predictive text like my Nokia's T9. It knew how English worked and what the probability of a word in context was.

Now it's all: "the same time and consideration and I are going to be a good time to get the latest Flash player is required for video playback is unavailable right now because this video is not available for remote playback is unavailable right now because this...."

Keyboard and the ability to physically close the phone to turn it off/sleep/hangup.

I had a 2nd Gen moto x. It had proximity sensors around the screen that allowed you to make gestures over the phone to do things like check notifications, pause music, dismiss calls, etc. They also offered a lot more customization options than any other phone I know of. Mine had a leather back, which was available in a few colors. They also had several options for wood backs. It was a really nice phone and I was sad when it died.

Knock code, wow, I didn't even remember it, but yeah it was pretty neat. I would say it's the IR blaster for me. It was quite useful.

Hardware keyboards on mobile phones

Dunno if this counts, but screens that fit in my goddamn pocket.

Active Edge, which LG originally came up with and that Google adopted with the Pixel 2. Of course they dropped it after a few devices.

It was basically a button/key press that you could configure to trigger actions by firmly applying pressure with you hands around the lower third of your phone. It gave a very satisfying haptic vibration response based on the amount of pressure you applied and you could even set the amount of pressure until it was triggered. It had something magickal about it.

If you're interested in the tech: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/10/19/google-pixel-2-teardown-ifixit/

The knock code really was so convenient and safe. No way for other people to see it.

I was an avid fan of LG phones, especially the G series. I mean yeah, some features were kind of pointless (G5 Module??)

The LG V10 had the smartest way I've seen to handle the notch: by keeping it on a corner, and using the top of what was left of the screen to display quick-access icons, notifications, and the clock. The rest of the screen kept the good old 16 by 9 aspect ratio with a square display. Kind of peeves me to see video players cropping part of the video where the notch is nowadays...

Yet another of Google's discontinued pet projects with tons of potential but that that they quickly lost interest in, my trusty (now officially unsupported) Pixel 4XL has a Soli Radar sensor that I'm going to miss when I finally break down and buy another phone.

It is so nice to be able to just wave generally in the direction of my phone to do stuff. I use it all the time when I'm driving to skip songs, or repeat the last song, or pause the music, etc. without taking my eyes off the road. It really is a shame to me that they threw a bunch of money at a legitimately cool project like that, and then seemingly just abandoned it entirely.

Add it to the list, I suppose.

Notification LED's, a REAL proximity sensor (not just the Selfie Camera), the headphone jack, a dedicated Fingerprint Sensor (because under display sensors are still bad).

Phones: ability to throw it on the ground without anything bad happening to it.

Other: software that you could just own.

Tactile keyboards

I had an old flip phone that came with a demo of Uno. I could play a single hand, then reset the demo and play again and again. There was only a nag screen when you were exiting/restarting the demo, and not a single other ad.

Passed hours with that little game.

I miss mobile gaming when it was like that.

Smaller, narrower phones generally. Blackberry keyboards (and slideout keyboards) in particular.

Loved the various hardware oddities of the moto Z line: a rear fingerprint scanner that was easy to use while holding the phone, and of course the magnetic attachments. Used to carry two batteries that could hot-swap, and a game controller in my bag.

I read this as planes and was gonna say the little wings they give you as a kid. I'm still gonna say it cause I miss that

Nokia phones in 2000 could record your voice for any command you wanted. The voice command reliability of those phones is beyond superior to what is offered by today's voice assistants.

The absence of notches

the neatest thing about pixel phones for me was the squeeze to snooze... I'm hanging on to my pixel 3 because of that, since I constantly need alarms and to postpone them for medicines etc. they removed it on pixel 5 onwards and no other phone seems to have it

a big shame that it doesn't allow you to assign it to other things though ... google sucks

So back in the day you could hold home to pull up Google assistant and tell it to translate whatever was on your screen. No matter what app, browser, etc it just worked. I have no idea why they ever got rid of it. Now with the modern version of tap to translate text has to be highlight-able in order to be translated, which is a bone headed decision. It's like they never use the stuff they make.

• iris scanner
• Dedicated MicroSD card slot
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Removable/user replacable battery
• Metal backs
• Front firing speakers

A tactile keyboard. There was a time when I could text with my eyes closed (literally). Now it takes me 30 seconds to "type" out a text that should take < 10 seconds.